Member’s Profile – Matthew Simon

Matthew Simon

Background

Matthew Simon has worked in conceptual space habitat design since 2008, when as a NASA graduate student he contributed to the development of lunar surface architectures in support of Constellation program and long duration Mars Transit and Surface habitats supporting NASA’s Mars Design Reference Mission work. In 2010, he took a position in NASA Langley’s Space Mission Analysis Branch as a Habitation and Crew Systems Lead for NASA’s Human Spaceflight Architecture Team (HAT). This cross-center team designed and evaluated alternative space mission architectures (particularly missions to the Moon, Mars, and asteroids) to support strategic planning decisions at NASA Headquarters for future human space exploration missions. Currently, Dr. Simon serves as the Habitation Portfolio Manager for NASA Langley where he assesses new business opportunities for the center in habitation and related technologies and systems. In addition to this role, Dr. Simon supports multiple other NASA projects on spacecraft design, habitation, medical capability development, strategic decision analysis, and technology portfolio characterization. He has an interest in progressing towards human colonization space through the identification and development of integrated, cross-disciplinary technologies with large potential to impact spacecraft design and improve the quality of life here on Earth. He received his Ph. D. in Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in May 2016 with his thesis on automated spacecraft interior layout evaluation and design.